Simulating Nonhydrostatic Atmospheres on Planets (SNAP): Formulation, Validation, and Application to the Jovian Atmosphere

• Published in: The Astrophysical journal. Supplement series Vol. 240; no. 2; pp. 37 - 55
• Main Authors: Li, Cheng, Chen, Xi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Saskatoon The American Astronomical Society 13.02.2019; IOP Publishing
• Subjects: Ammonia; Atmosphere; Atmospheric flows; Atmospheric models; Cloud formation; Clouds; Computer simulation; Condensates; Depletion; Entropy; Entropy production; Finite element method; hydrodynamics; Jupiter atmosphere; Jupiter probes; Low speed; Mach number; Microphysics; Mixing processes; Moist convection; Planet formation; Planetary atmospheres; Planets; planets and satellites: atmospheres; planets and satellites: gaseous planets; Riemann solver; Robustness (mathematics); Sharpness; Spatial filtering; Task scheduling; Temperature gradients; Vapors

A new nonhydrostatic and cloud-resolving atmospheric model is developed for studying moist convection and cloud formation in planetary atmospheres. It is built on top of the Athena++ framework, utilizing its static/adaptive mesh-refinement, parallelization, curvilinear geometry, and dynamic task sch...